AT&T Blames iPhone "Data Hogs" For The Network Issues

At A UBS conference in NYC today AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega had some tough words against iPhone users, or some of them at least.

He’s blaming some users for using all the bandwidth and jamming the airwaves. I very much believe it’s true nonetheless it’s unacceptable for the CEO of a company like AT&T to call some of his customers “hogs”, judge for yourself :

Wireless data hogs who jam the airwaves by watching video on their iPhones will be put on tighter leashes, …[AT&T] will also give high-bandwidth users incentives to “reduce or modify their usage.”

Just 3 percent of “smart” phone users are consuming 40 percent of the network capacity, de la Vega said, adding that the most high-bandwidth activity is video and audio streaming. Several applications on the iPhone provide nonstop Internet radio.

De la Vega also defended the network’s performance, saying testing showed that AT&T’s third-generation, or 3G, network was faster than that of competitors, and that major problems are concentrated in New York and San Francisco, which are packed with smart phone users.